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Stick a fork in me and call me roadkill. Lion sent me up north to deliver a whore he traded off to The Stable. It’s a ranch in Canada where they shoot porno flicks. I don’t know why he needed me to personally escort her there, but I suspect he didn’t want me poking around in his affairs.
Rolling down my street I see Lion’s motorcycle out front of my house. Ruthie’s car is running in the driveway, but no lights are on inside the house other than the occasional flicker from the Tv projecting on the walls and reflecting on the window. It’s not unusual for my father-in-law to visit with Ruthie, but I have a bad inkling in my gut. I park, shut my bike off, and head for the door.
I don’t know what gives me pause, but I open the door quietly. Slipping inside I listen and wait.
“Do-don’t make me choose,” I overhear Ruthie. The tremble in her voice sends me running. My pulse drums in my ears and races up and down my throat. I stop short in the hall behind my wife. In a standoff with her father she presses the barrel of my .45 between his eyes. Alexa is tucked into his chest with a knife to her throat.
My veins burn with the taste for vengeance. Tonight this bastard is going to die executioner style but not at her hands. I won’t let my wife have that on her heart no matter how I feel about her. I created this madness and sadness that exists between us. Look up pain in the dictionary and you’ll see our marriage. We’ve done nothing but hurt each other.
Placing my hand over Ruthie’s on the gun, I tell her, “Take Alexa and get out of here. This is between your old man and me.” The fear shining back at me through Alexa’s eyes nearly cuts me in two. He put his fucking hands on her for the last time.
Lion chuckles. “Never have liked you. You think you’re man enough to take me on?”
“Let Alexa go. It’s me you want. You’ve got me.”
He shoves Alexa into Ruthie and she eases her grip on the weapon but refuses to relinquish it to me. “Take her out of here,” she grits through her teeth. Alexa moves to my side clinging onto me for dear life.
I have a choice to make. Save the woman I love or defend the one I married. Ruthie is Rochelle’s mother, and I made a vow to love and protect her. It’s no choice. Not one anyone should have to make.
“No. This is club business. Let him answer for his sins. Drop the knife or I put you to ground without a fair trial.”
“If that’s how you want to play it.” The knife hits the floor, and he holds his palms out. “They’ll never side against me.”
I kick the knife away.
“Are you sure?” Ruthie asks.
“You and Alexa will stand as witnesses. He disrespected me by coming into my house and hurting what’s mine.” Ruthie shoots me a funny look, and I correct myself. “Alexa’s under my protection.”
“You sure that’s all it is?” Lion motions head toward Alexa curled into my side as though I’m her lifeline.
I ignore his accusation. Ruthie doesn’t need to know about Alexa and me. Not tonight. “He threatened you. Daughter or not you’re my wife. I won’t stand for anyone harming you. My family is my world. You know that. Your father doesn’t care about you or Rochelle. He spits on his patch and club. If he moves, shoot him.”
Ruthie strengthens her stance and clicks the safety off.
I squeeze Alexa’s hand, but don’t take my eyes off the enemy. “Go to the garage. There’s rope on the utility shelf.” I want to reassure her that everything is going to be fine, but the club could vote against me. Lion’s been Prez a long damn time. This shit could backfire and go sideways. It could be me who is cast out and not him.
**
Emergency church is in session. Lion sits at the head of the table, but he’s in chains. Ruthie and Alexa are sitting at the bar under the watchful eye of a prospect. This isn’t ideal or how I planned to take the bastard out, but here we are. Nickel, Lion’s right-hand man and VP glances around the room counting heads.
“I call this meeting to order. Brothers you have been called here tonight under unusual circumstances. I’m not going to waste anyone’s time. Let’s cut straight to it. Lion, you stand accused of breaking our code, of disrespecting a brother and his property. Murder claims you went to his home uninvited twice and assaulted someone under his protection. You are charged with not only sexual assault and battery but conspiring to deal Cloud Nine with the Dry Ridge Sinners after we voted against the deal. Do you deny these charges?”
“Fuck you. This is my club. None of you would be shit without me. I did what the rest of you were too pussy to. That girl was in the way. Murder had no right to offer her protection. We’re only here because he’s pissed I fucked his little cunt first. She begged me for it. Bitch was fucking dripping she wanted it so much.”
Grinding my teeth, I ball my fists, finding it hard to resist the urge to take him out right here. He’s baiting me, but I’m not playing his game.
“That true?” Nickel turns his questioning on me.
“No.”
Lion smirks. “He’s fuckin’ her all right.”
“Where I stick my dick has nothing to do with what you did. This isn’t about me. It’s about you and what a sick fuck you are. I went to prison for killing the worm food who hurt my sister. I have no problem doing time if it means I get to put you down and ensure you never touch another hair on Alexa’s head, but I wanted to do this right so there’d be no doubt that when you take your last breath it’s for good reason. You’re a traitor to that patch and don’t deserve to wear it.”
“And you think you do?”
“No, but someone better than you does.”
“Enough. Grudge, bring in the girl.”
The room goes quiet. Women are never allowed in on club business, but this is a rare exception. Grudge returns with Alexa and seeing her in the light...it’s worse than I thought. Holding ice to her mouth she’s brought to the front of the room. One glance around the table at their faces tells me my brothers don’t like what they are seeing any more than I do.
Bruised and spirit broken she stands before us with nothing to gain for it but everything to lose. If the club takes Lion’s side, it could mean a death sentence for not only me but Ruthie and Alexa. Papa knows if I go down Colter is to get Rochelle out of town. I may not be much of a father, but I won’t let her die in my name.
Blood related or not if Lion makes it out of this, he’ll wipe my family out.
“Do you understand what’s being asked of you?” Nickel begins questioning Alexa.
“Yes.”
“And you understand that if you lie there will be consequences?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever happens in this room is to never be spoken of outside of these walls, yeah?”
“I understand.”
“Good. Let’s proceed.” He leans back in his seat and fires up a joint. He takes a hit then passes it around the large table with our club insignia burned into the wood. A skull with two motorcycles, one on each side. “Tell us how you know our Prez.”
“I started seeing this guy, Todd.” Alexa pauses, fidgeting with her fingers, twisting them together at the knuckle. “He gave me a bag of weed to keep for him, but my mom found it. She flushed it then kicked me out. He was angry and wanted his money. I had him drop me off at Ja—Murder’s house because Rochelle and I are friends, and I thought I’d be safer there. Todd left for a while, but then he came back...” Bottom lip trembling, she sucks in a deep breath and wipes at her eyes.
I nod for her to go on.
“He attacked me. Started hitting me, threatening me. He knocked me to the floor and proceeded to rape me. Someone else entered the house. I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him and smell him. The man hit Todd and took his turn with me. He smelled like menthol and there was a tattoo.” She rubs a finger over the back of her hand. “A lion’s head with a crown.”
“What happened after that?” Reed prompts.
“Todd took me somewhere. I was gone for weeks. He kept me drugged and one day he decided to let me go. I don’t know why. I expected to die. I woke up one day at a park near my parent’s house. I was scared and didn’t know what to do.”
“That’s the day I saw you walking up and down the road,” Grudge says.
“Yes. Murder took me to a safe house for the night. The next day he brought me to Lily, and I stayed there for a while. Then I came back because people were looking for me. My parents put me out again so Ruthie said I could stay until I found a more permanent situation. That’s where I’ve been until tonight. I walked into the living room. Lion was sitting there waiting for me. Again, he attacked me. This time he took me to the bedroom, and we fought as he tore at my clothes. Ruthie came home for something. She interrupted his plans. Then Murder showed up and here we are.”
“Left out the part where you and Murder been fucking,” my bastard of a Prez states.
“Any truth to that, Alexa?”
She stares at her feet, moving her head back and forth.
“Lex, look at me,” I demand. Those green eyes meet mine swirling with fear. “You don’t have to protect me. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Going to ask you one more time,” VP tells her. “Are you having an affair with Murder?”
“I asked him to take the bad away and give me something good in its place because I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I could feel their touch. Smell their breath. Hear their grunts. They filled me with poison and James took it away. He showed me not all men are bad. Made sure my body healed with antibiotics. Gave me a place to hide until I felt safe and a place to lay my head. There’s nothing nefarious about that. He’s the best man I’ve ever known. He may be a killer, but he’s no liar. That man sitting there.” Hand trembling, she points to Lion. “That man is pure evil. His name should be Lucifer because he’s the devil. If you let him walk next time it could be your daughter or Old Lady he goes after. What will you do then?”
“That’ll be all. Grudge, take her back to the bar.”
“Want me to grab Ruthie?”
Nickel holds his hand up. “Won’t be necessary. I think we’ve heard enough.”
**
“Your club has denounced you as Prez. You are hereby stripped of your colors and your position within the Royal Bastard MC.” Nickel takes a knife and jabs it into Lion’s cut to remove the President patch. “Your wife will no longer receive any benefits from the club. You will not be buried with club honors nor will we speak of you after today. Your existence will be scrubbed. It will be as though you disappeared. I, Nickel acting in my role as Vice President sentence you to death. Not only did you go against our code, but you violated one of the most sacred rules of all.”
“Fuck you. Get on with it. I’d rather you put a bullet in my brain than bore me to death.” His cold eyes cut to me. “I hope I put a baby in your whore so that every time you look at her and her bastard all you see is me. Whenever you sink inside that tight little pussy you remember that my dick was there first and that she moaned for me before she ever did for you.”
At those words I lose what ounce of control I had left. I look at his left hand. The one with the lion’s head tattoo. “Hold him,” I snarl. Two of my brother’s take control. I go to the wall where the weapons hang. The ones we use to interrogate a difficult person of interest. I grab an axe. “Cuff him to the table.”
Lion jerks but it gets him nowhere. With his hand locked in where I want it, I line the sharpened blade up above his wrist and bring it down with one swoop to chop off his hand. Blood splatters and spurts. He cries out once before passing out.
I take off his other hand. I’m saving his head for last. Tonight I’ll bathe in his blood and fuck Alexa in it while he listens. Her crying out my name will be the last thing he ever hears. Tomorrow I’ll sew the President’s patch onto my cut.